ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel releases Top 100 MLB prospects: White Sox slot in with six

When you lose 121 games, you need to write about something

Is it possible to write too much about prospects? Yes, yes, it is. But when your team stinks and makes no significant offseason moves, it leaves you scrounging for scraps.

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Yesterday, I wrote about MLB Pipeline’s and The Athletic’s Top 100 Prospects lists. Today, I’ll share Kiley McDaniel’s rankings for ESPN, which included six Chicago players. By now, you’re probably becoming quite familiar with the names and maybe even the faces. The White Sox dropped this photo yesterday of Colson and Braden Montgomery. It was absolute fire. Well done.

So, here’s how McDaniel slotted the South Siders:

Braden Montgomery (OF) 92
Colson Montgomery (IF) 33
Edgar Quero (C) 54
Noah Schultz (LHSP) 19
Hagen Smith (LHSP) 41

To no one’s surprise, the Los Angeles Dodgers lead the overall list with eight top players. Next up is Chicago’s system with six top prospects, closely followed by the Chicago Cubs, Tampa Bay Rays, and Seattle Mariners with five each. I know it doesn’t mean much because of the failed rebuild we just went through, but I’m happier having a half-dozen top prospects than not. Small victories.

Again, the 21-year-old Schultz leads the club at No. 19. Last year, at just 20 years old, the southpaw pitched for High-A Winston-Salem and the Double-A Birmingham Barons. He logged a 2.24 ERA over 88 1⁄3 innings of work between both teams with a pretty strict pitch limit. Reaching a full, big-league starter’s workload will likely require him to pitch in at least one more full minor league season. Schultz could possibly break into the White Sox major league rotation by late 2025 or early 2026, but honestly, there is no reason at all to rush him. The Sox should let him continue developing as he has so far. But once he does arrive in Chicago, he has the potential to be a top-tier ace. Hopefully, we don’t trade him away, too, and find ourselves in this perpetual circle of trading away premier pitching for prospects.

For comparison, this is how McDaniel ranked them in August 2024.

Colson dropped substantially from McDaniel’s mid-season ranking, but he still placed him higher than anyone else did for 2025. See the table below.

All five Top 100 Prospect lists

If you’re looking for patterns, Schultz is definitely consistently in the top 20%, with the exception of the one outlier there putting him at 30%. Next, there’s Colson Montgomery, Hagen Smith, and Kyle Teel, all hovering around the bottom end of the top 50%. While there’s a little more variability with Edgar Quero, he ends up in the bottom 33%. Finally, the evaluators are a bit all over the place when it comes to Braden Montgomery, as he bounced around from a high of 38% to a low of 99%. So, that one is drawing a number from a hat, apparently.

That should wrap up the Top 100 Prospect lists. Although now that I’ve written it, there will probably be another one that comes out tomorrow. And then you’ll find me back here adjusting my cool tables. But until I need to answer that call, I’ll leave you with the reminder to check out our South Side Sox Top 100 list as we count them down to No. 1.